Pinterest, despite still being an invitation only site, is continuing to grow at pretty impressive rates, with the most recent spike seen in the past 6 months.

According to statistics ...

Ali Sajid's insight:

Pinterest received nearly 11 million visits during the week ending December 17, which is a staggering 4,000% increase in comparison to visitor statistics 6 months earlier in June, when it only had around 275,000 visitors.While at first glance the site might appear to be female dominated, it’s interesting to find that the statistics reveal that the gap isn’t as large as we would have expected, with women making up 58% of the visitors to the site in the 12 weeks ending December 17th. 59% of the visitors were aged 25 to 44.

Total media ad spending worldwide rose 5.4% this year to just under $519 billion—an uptick in the growth rate since 2011’s increase of 3.6%. Ad spending will continue to climb at a similar pace throughout, which extends through 2016. By that year, worldwide ad spending will top $628 billion.

In this collection of 72 social media marketing facts and statistics find which social network creates the most B2B leads? What marketing technique has the highest close ratio? The best day of the week is for Facebook posting?

Ali Sajid's insight:

Social media and inbound marketing techniques have been a boon for marketers. Not only are leads generated through social and content marketing but also cost half as much as traditional outbound-lead generation.

AMMAN — People in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) spend more time using the Internet, reading and watching media outlets than they do sleeping, according to figures released on Monday by Ipsos Jordan, a market research and studies company.

Ali Sajid's insight:

MENA residents spend about nine hours a day consuming media (using the Internet, watching TV, listening to the radio, etc.), while they sleep, on average, 6.9 hours a day.

Overall advertising investment is up 2.7 percent with tv holding the majority of advertising dollars globally according to Nielsen’s Global Adview Pulse report.

Ali Sajid's insight:

Advertising is on the rise around the globe and across nearly all media types, according to Neilsen. Gains in areas such as Internet (+7.2%), radio (+6.6%) and TV (+3.1%) offset the 1.3 percent decline in magazine spending in the first half of 2012, leading overall advertising investment to be up 2.7 percent.

As we head towards the end of the year, we decided to look at the world’s most fascinating regions to provide insights into how social media shapes industries and businesses in the Middle East and North Africa.

Ali Sajid's insight:

In many MENA countries, Facebook is doing remarkably well. Since the beginning of 2012, the region grew 29%, adding more than 10M new registered users. Qatar, Libya and Iraq, which are also the top three fastest moving countries, added more than 115%, 86% and 81% new users respectively. In Egypt, 2.5M new people have joined the Facebook platform since January 2012, representing the highest absolute user growth. Egypt is also the region’s most penetrated country with 17M online Facebook population.

More than 500 million users have upgraded to Google+ accounts, while 235 million are actively using Google+ features (like +1′ing apps, or following friends in Google Search

135 million users are active in the Google+ stream proper, the service’s equivalent of Facebook’s news feed. The numbers show significant growth from June, when Google+ only had 250 million total accounts and 150 million monthly active users.

While far from Facebook’s 1 billion monthly active users, the growth shows that Google+ isn’t something to be ignored. Even if you don’t use the service as a true Facebook replacement, it’s becoming increasingly complementary to Google’s other services.

Globally, spending on measured media will rise from $538.75 billion in 2012 to $676.17 billion in 2016. But tough economic realities are mirrored in some regional figures. As Western Europe and North America struggle to regainmomentum, media spending will post low single-digit gains. Other parts of the world will do far better.

Social media and social networking are no longer in their infancy. Social media continues to grow rapidly, offering global consumers new and meaningful ways to engage with the people, events and brands that matter to them. According to Nielsen and NM Incite’s latest Social Media Report, consumers continue to spend more time on social networks than on any other category of sites—roughly 20 percent of their total time online via personal computer (PC), and 30 percent of total time online via mobile.

Cutting-edge companies across the Arab world recognize that digital marketing holds the potential to redefine the playing field in sectors and regions across the globe, the latest white paper by CTPartners Executive Search Inc.

Ali Sajid's insight:

Digital media will more than double its share of the Arab world's advertising market by 2015, according to a recent study by Deloitte. Its Arab Media Outlook said digital is the fastest growing media platform in the region and accounted for four percent of the total advertising spend in 2011.

Deloitte said it expects digital to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35 percent over the next three years, generating about $580 million across the region by 2015.

Global ad expenditure growth forecast to strengthen over the next three years, rising from 3.3% in 2012 to 4.1% in 2013 and 5.6% in 2015Developing markets to contribute 61% of adspend growth between 2012 and 2015, and increase their share of global adspend from 34% to 37%Online video and social media to help drive 20% annual growth in internet display over the next three yearsInternet advertising to exceed combined newspaper and magazine total in 2015

We would like to share with you this huge 8000 pixel long infographic with tons of interesting numbers on LinkedIn. We have also added a Twitter Takeaways section below.

Ali Sajid's insight:

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with close to 187 million members and growing rapidly. For businesses it is an ideal platform to target and reach decision makers, through Linkedin advertising and company pages.

Quick Facts

- Almost 4.5 million users in Middle East

- The Linkedin membership grows by approximately two new members every second.

- 1.2 million users in UAE

- 76.9% of users said Linkedin helped them research people and companies

- 37.2% of users said that Linkedin helped increase branding/marketing presence in the marketplace

A new study from TNS identifies location-based services (LBS) as the function mobile users worldwide are most interested in using on their devices. As part of its annual Mobile Life study, the media research firm found almost a fifth (19%) of the world’s 6 billion mobile users are already using LBS, with many of the non-users (62%) aspiring to do so in the future.

The digital marketers first choice for latest digital marketing and advertising trends in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and UAE.

Ali Sajid's insight:

The number of Twitter users in Saudi Arabia increased by 3,000 percent in June, making the Gulf state the biggest growth market for the social network, the site’s CEO said.

Half of the kingdom’s active users log in daily while more than 50 percent access the micro blogging site via their smartphone, Dick Costolo said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

The number of people using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter has soared in the wake of last year’s Arab Spring protests, becoming popular platforms for coordinating rallies and disseminating news and information quickly.

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.